Showalter is not an incumbent, as she's been out of office for two years.

Well yes. The secondary headline is also incorrect in reporting that Pat Showalter won the 4th seat by the initial margin of 58 votes. The margin ended up being 74 - according to the article itself. Evidently, the headline is often written by someone other than the author of the article.

Maybe there might have to be a BIG change in elections in Mountain View.

Did you see the story "Appeals Rules Against Santa Clara in Voting Rights Act Case" it involves a court order to divide the city of Santa Clara into districts thus having to have those living in them to compete directly and see who gets the majority. You can read the case here (Web Link and the first story I read about it is here (Web Link

The ugly truth is that our election system is flawed. Simply choosing City Council winners by ranked elections is not going to hold up if challenged in court. Given the courts have made a decent decision showing it skews elections in the detriment of minority voters.

Maybe the City Council better start working to implement this new idea before a judge orders it?